The Same old story, ATI vs NVidia

Looking at a few laptops and want some advice:

Notebookcheck: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5730

vs.

Notebookcheck: NVIDIA GeForce GTS 360M

The NVidia is rated higher on notebookcheck but the Radeon is DirectX 11 and I was wondering if that is going to make a big difference in the coming years. I need this laptop mostly for running CS5 but I want it to play games and last at least 3-4 years. Thanks.

The laptops I am looking at:

MSI GE600-002US Notebook - Core i5 i5-430M 2.26 GHz - 16'' - GE600-002US - Buy.com

and

Asus - Laptop with Intel® Core™ i5 Processor - Blue/Black - G60JX-RBBX05

 

Not familiar with how those 2 GPUs compare, but get whatever one runs today's games at higher frame-rates.

DX11 is a nice bonus, but true DX11 only games are a long way off. Chances are, everything released in the next few years will run on DX10 (and probably DX9) class hardware.

Also, 3-4 years is probably expecting too much out of a laptop equipped with mid-range GPU.

That would be something like trying to run today's games on a laptop equipped with a 7600 go.

 

Honestly expecting a gaming laptop to last past two years is tough to do. Unless you spend alot more then what your looking at. I'd honestly go with something more like the Msi GX640, or the gx740. Much better GPU's and will give you much longer time in the race basically. I'd say once your GPU is 2-3 generations back it's time to upgrade. hell most true gamers upgrade their systems yearly.

 

i agree.. if u can push ur budget to 1100.. an MSI GX640 will be a better option and should run games on high for 2-3 years... the CPU can also be upgraded to i7 quad if u need to.

 

To answer your question, both are good. The performance difference will not be that great in real life gaming. DX11 is a nice to have, only a few games out so far use it. As others have pointed out 3-4 years is a bit much to expect, but 2-3 years maybe - might have to play some of the cutting edge games with settings turned down towards the end.

I favor going cheaper now and saving money, then 2-3 years and you can afford to upgrade if you feel you need to. I just ordered a GE600 myself. I almost got the GX640, but liked the cooler, quieter GE600 with the switchable gfx. The 640 will perform better and is a really nice rig, but I felt the GE600 was a good, balanced system and good enough for my needs. Tough choice, though.

 

DX11 is also pretty useless on any card below a 5850. Games that support DX11 features are already going to be graphically intensive enough that you probably won't be able to run DX11 features without seriously sacrificing visual quality in other areas.

 

^ i second that.

early 5xxx series cards will not have enough juice to run dx11 properly.

However, in the showdown between 360 vs 5730, i'd pick the 5730. ATI driver support has been very impressive lately.

 

Hilariously wrong. The GTS 360M is in a much higher class than the Mob. 5730.

I mean a 75% difference.

 

Oh come on, 45% faster, not 75% (3DMark 06 from notebook check). Yet your comment is right: the is a significant difference between the two of them.

 

The one article I read that benchmarked DX10 performance vs. DX11 actually showed DX11 to be not only better looking, but less taxing on the system (i.e. something like 2-5 FPS improvement). I think it was benchmarking the new AvP or something. In other words, based on this particular article's conclusions, DX11 is like Windows 7 to DX10's Vista, it's not only newer and prettier, but it's more efficient.

However, comparing the two cards, the 360M is much faster - if you're looking for the card that's going to perform the best in the vast majority of near-future games, it's going to be the 360M.

 

Depends on the systems and the benchmarks, I'm talking about gaming performance, not benchmarks. In the comparison I saw, I think it was an Asus G51jx and and an Asus N61jq or 71jq, the differences were only in the 10-15% range, maybe 20%, I don't remember exactly.

So 50 fps or 60 fps - not that big a difference - especially perceptible difference in actual game play. I assume the Asus G60jx would be similar. Asus usually underclocks the 360m.

I was trying to give the OP a real answer to his question, not just a lot of the usual juvenile my cards bigger than your card crap I see on these forums.

But I'm sure yours is much, much bigger.

 

Re: DX-11 - exactly so. The 5730 will take advantage of DX-11. Does with games out so far and shows a performance boost (small) over DX-10 plus better visuals.

Agreed that the 360m is faster, but it's also hotter, more expensive and not that much faster in any real systems that I've seen. Like I said above, maybe 10-20% faster in real life gaming. Maybe some systems will do better than what I've seen, of course. If the 360m is using GDDR5 mem will do better, also. Anyhow, I was surprised, too. But the 360m is just a higher clocked 260m, just as the 5730 is an up-clocked 5650. The 5730 performs pretty darn well, however, in all the gaming tests I've seen, costs less, and runs cooler. And the 360m is DX10 while the 5730 is DX11 a valid plus for the 5730.

Anyway, just my opinions and the OP can read 'em all and judge for himself. My real life personal experience has proven to me that the performance difference in cards is often not what it's usually cracked up to be. I'm talking perceptible gameplay differences. Often you can drop the rez a bit and cut back on a few settings and match the new "hot card" with little perceptible visual differences in appearance or gameplay (smoothness, etc.) vs. pixel peeping screenshots.

 

Does the OP know the MSI GX 640 is only around $1,100 with HD5850?

For it's price, AnandTech pretty much stated this is the best bang for the dollar gaming laptop.

Although the GTX 360 is a really great price with the Best Buy Asus. I say it's a toss up. For the few extra dollars, the MSI would be the way to go with the higher res screen (1680*1050). But if $1,100 is out of OP's price range, I'd say go for the Asus with the GTS 360.